DragonQuest

Welcome to DragonQuest

"And so it was they came – with ice and acid, with lightning and poison, and finally with fire..they came upon us like a plague of death, and all we came to know would be lost. But, they were only dark angels, heralds of the one to come – for it was he that would be the end of all things. And so it came to pass, that the world ended, not in ice, or acid, or lightning, or poison, nor fire – but in shadow." – Sage of the First Age

Welcome to DRAGONQUEST, a campaign setting being written for Pathfinder. Pathfinder is a variant of 3.5, written by former Dungeon & Dragon authors and contributors. It is written to be a spiritual successor to 3.5 as well as classic Dungeons & Dragons.

The game is still 3.5, but many improvements have been made to the system. Classes that were weaker have gained in power, classes that had wide level ranges of no new abilities now receive new powers, rules have been streamlined, and many other things were balanced. The game is still D&D however, and should be easy for any veteran to jump in and play.

The purpose of this campaign is of course, to have fun exploring a fantasy realm of swords & sorcery. But we’re also taking a look at Pathfinder, to see how and if it improved the game. This is an experiment, but one that can be and should be enjoyable. In addition, this campaign serves to scratch a certain itch we’ve all been feeling, an itch that modern systems have yet to really scratch.

The campaign is being designed with a clear end, however that end may be far away. If players find themselves bored or fulfilled with our game play, the campaign will end appropriately. If players find they want more, then the campaign will end much later in a climactic battle against the Dark Lord. The choice is up to us.

This campaign is meant to be casual. It will be played during the week for short periods of time, and attendance is not mandatory. There will probably be a small group of players who are interested enough in playing. Some weeks there won’t be a session – yet there is no reason to not have a week with two. It depends on what and how we want to play, and I leave that fluid to the group.

To aid me in providing challenging adventures to the party, I will be relying heavily on randomized content. I have reviewed and purchased tools that I feel strike a good balance between randomized content and meaningful content. I will be custom tailoring these generations, as well as providing my own written material as time permits.

However, this campaign is not a “White Binder” campaign. It is not a featureless world with merely a random dungeon and a nameless town. This is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and the world is alive, waiting to respond to your actions (or inaction). I expect, and hope, there will be plenty of ‘off session’ hours spent building up forces, creating strongholds, researching spells, making alliances, and plenty of other actions to help build the world. While you could just play for the combat, you’d be missing a lot of what is there.

A good way to summarize not only my intentions but my direction is to simply list the inspirations for this campaign. Ideas and concepts found below had a great part in shaping the world we are about to explore:

• Lost dungeons of Norrath/Dragons of Norrath

• Road to Legend

• 1st/2nd D&D

• Band of the Burning Hand

• Ton of very cool and hardly used D&D books

If these sound cool or interesting, you may be in the right campaign.

This document is a player’s guide to the campaign. It not only contains a list of rules or changes but the methodology behind how the world and game will work. Players who are just interested in playing should be sure to read the sections on Alignment and Training. Other readers may be interested to see how the world and game will work.

I look forward to building a world with you all, hopefully one we can talk about for years to come.